1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Internet refrigerator with a Web pad and a method for operating the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an Internet refrigerator with a Web pad and a method for operating the same, wherein the Web pad is a client Web pad which is detachably mounted on the Internet refrigerator and connected thereto in a wired/wireless manner. Further, according to the present invention, a server control unit is provided in the Internet refrigerator to drive an application program and multimedia resources for rapid transmission and reception of signals between the Internet refrigerator and the client Web pad and to output a display signal based on a remote display protocol to the client Web pad to display the multimedia resources through the Web pad.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional Internet refrigerator will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1 which shows the outer appearance thereof.
Generally, refrigerators are home appliances that have inner compartments for storage of food and in which a refrigerant circulates while being maintained at a low temperature to preserve the food from spoilage or decay so as to keep it in a fresh state or condition for a long time.
Recently, a refrigerator has been developed which has a display unit, a key input unit, a processor for signal processing, and etc. to perform a general computer function in a kitchen, in addition to the above-mentioned basic refrigeration function. In particular, this refrigerator additionally has a capability of obtaining access to an external Internet network. As a result, a user can not only upload/download data to/from a Web page connected to the Internet network, but can also search the connected Web page for desired data. Such a refrigerator with the Internet access function is typically called an Internet refrigerator, which is denoted by the reference character R in FIG. 1.
In the case where a home network is provided in a building and a plurality of home appliances are connected to the home network, the Internet refrigerator R can be used as a home server for centrally controlling the plurality of home appliances. The reason for using the Internet refrigerator as the home server is that the Internet refrigerator R is generally always in its driven state (i.e., in an in ON condition), so that it is capable of monitoring, in real time, variations in states of the home appliances connected to the home network.
To this end, the Internet refrigerator R includes, as shown in FIG. 1, an input/display unit 1, such as a touch pad, mounted on its outer surface. The user can readily monitor Internet data or home appliance state data displayed through the display unit 1.
In order to replace the existing display unit 1 of the Internet refrigerator R, there has recently been proposed a portable device such as a Web pad equipped with a wireless communication module based on a wireless local area network (LAN) protocol, which is a wireless communication protocol developed to enable wireless communication within a predetermined distance. The Web pad is detachably mounted on the Internet refrigerator R to replace the display unit 1.
In other words, the Web pad, detachably mounted on the Internet refrigerator R, is utilized as the display unit 1 of the refrigerator R when it is mounted on the refrigerator R, and wirelessly transmits and receives data to/from the refrigerator R when detached from the refrigerator R. As a result, the Web pad receives a control command input by a remote user within a predetermined distance and displays a controlled result based on the control command.
The Web pad is adapted to process a control command wirelessly transmitted in its detached state and output a display signal to display a controlled result based on the control command. To this end, the Web pad has a microcomputer for independently processing data transmitted and received to/from the refrigerator.
For example, when the user intends to execute an application program ‘A’ stored in the Internet refrigerator by operating the Web pad, the Web pad drives (i.e., runs or executes) the application program ‘A’ stored therein because the same application programs ‘A’ are stored in both the refrigerator and in the Web pad. This application program ‘A’ may be, for example, a housekeeping log, telephone directory or refrigerator manager, although it is not limited to these examples.
The user can create, edit and delete data by operating the application program driven or running in the Web pad when the driven state of the application program is displayed through the Web pad. The Web pad transmits data changed by the operation of the application program to the Internet refrigerator, which then updates data stored therein with the transmitted data.
To this end, the Web pad must further have a proper level of hardware to manage resources for the driving of the application program and to process the data.
A server control unit 2 is typically mounted on the top surface of the Internet refrigerator R in the form of a chip set to perform a home server function of the refrigerator R and to process data at a high speed. When the Web pad is detached from the Internet refrigerator R, the server control unit 2 manages data wirelessly transmitted and received to/from the Web pad, and wirelessly receives new data created or generated by the operation of the Web pad and updates the existing data with the newly received data.
Accordingly, a work-load for the application program driving and data processing is mostly applied to the Web pad, thereby causing congestion in signal traffic between the Web pad and the Internet refrigerator R and making it impossible to rapidly conduct the command input and processing using the Web pad. In particular, provided that an application program that requires a considerable amount of resources to run and a large amount of data are transmitted and received, the signal traffic will suffer severe congestion, resulting in data damage or loss and, thus, instability.
Furthermore, because duplicates of the same application programs are installed in the Web pad and in the Internet refrigerator, a considerable amount of time and cost are required in installing, maintaining and updating the application programs, which causes inconvenience to the user.